Climate sceptics?

Climate change is an often heard argument for the once called nuclear "renaissance". However, if one looks closer, there was something fishy about the industry using climate change protection as its most prominent feature... »Read more

More then thirty years of debate, and the controversy remains as polarised as ever. This website (to be fair - whose maintainer is anti-nuclear) collects news about nuclear power in Europe, sorted by nuclear power plant, type of power plant, country etc.

By presenting different (media) angles on current nuclear issues, we hope to be able to cut out some spin, either pro or against, and to allow the reader to make up his or her own mind about today's pro's and con's of nuclear power.

In the menu on the right you can select your country, the nuclear power plant in your neighbourhood, or your favourite company and read latest (most English) news about it.

Latest nuclear news

Areva, the French nuclear group, on Monday issued its fifth profit warning in seven months, saying it expected to report a €4.9bn loss for 2014 as cost overruns ballooned on key European projects.

The annual net loss - due to be the largest the state-controlled group has ever recorded - comes as Areva works with the French government on the details of a state-backed rescue package, according to people familiar with the situation.

Hungary’s deal to award up to €12bn in nuclear power contracts to a Russian state-owned company is facing a growing threat from EU regulators who have the power to block the project.

A veto or prohibitive fine from Brussels would be a bruising setback for Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, who has made the project the centrepiece of his strategy to forge deeper political and economic ties with Russia, despite the ostracising of Moscow by the west over Ukraine.

PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) - France should build a new generation of nuclear reactors to replace the country's ageing plants, Energy Minister Segolene Royal said on Tuesday, the first time a government member has clearly approved this option.

France, the country most reliant on nuclear power, must decide in the next few years whether to continue down the nuclear route as about half of its 58 reactors will reach their designed 40-year age limit in the 2020s.

On 2nd August 2013, ASN was informed by the Haut-Lévêque hospital in Pessac that an abnormal level of radioactivity had been discovered in a wastewater drain pipe. Investigations showed that radioactive effluents from the vectorised internal radiotherapy rooms were being discharged directly into the public sewerage network instead of being routed to the radioactive decay tanks, between August 2012 and 27th July 2013, owing to a piping connection error. The connection had been defective since works were carried out in August 2012.

On 14th October 2014, ASN was informed by Bordeaux CHU that the regulatory annual whole-body dose limit of 20 mSv was exceeded by an orthopaedic surgeon while using an interventional radiology device (image intensifier) in the operating theatre.

The event came to light when the practitioner’s passive dose monitoring results were received and showed that the dose received between June 2013 and June 2014 was 25 mSv.

UK ministers are warning their Austrian counterparts that an arsenal of retaliatory measures will be launched if Vienna goes ahead with plans to challenge an EU state aid decision approving subsidies for new nuclear reactors at Hinkley point in Somerset.

A diplomatic cable from the Austrian embassy in London to Vienna, seen by the Guardian, says that the Foreign Office’s Europe director, Vijay Rangarajan, conveyed a message that “the UK will take in the future every opportunity to sue or damage Austria in areas that have strong internal political effects,” unless the lawsuit was dropped.

On the 28th of January 2015, during an inspection of nuclear materials, a radiation worker accompanying the inspectors entered a hot cell containing a source of radiation. Worker remained inside the cell for about 1 minute. Worker’s personal dosimeter recorded an effective dose of 31 mSv which exceeds the annual statutory dose limit for radiation workers (20mSv). Doses received by the 3 inspectors present at the scene probably did not exceed 1 mSv (dose 0.7 mSv measured with personal electronic dosimeter, personal thermoluminescent dosimeters to be read).

While on location at a temporary jobsite, the licensee radiographer attempted to disconnect the guide tube from the radiography camera, without ensuring the source was in the shielded position. The licensee has confirmed a whole body dose of 64 mSv (6.4 rem) which exceeds the statutory dose limit of 50 mSv (5 rem). The licensee also confirmed a hand dose of 2,060 mSv (206 rem) which exceeds the statutory limit of 500 mSv (50 rem) for extremities. NRC EN50745.

Austria is to launch a legal challenge against the European Union’s (EU) decision to allow billions of pounds of subsidies for Hinkley Point C, casting fresh doubt over the UK’s first planned nuclear reactors in 20 years.

In October, the EU approved the controversial £17.6bn subsidy deal for the power station, which is expected to provide 7% of the UK’s electricity by 2023. David Cameron had previously hailed the subsidy deal between the French state-owned EDF and the UK government as “a very big day for our country”.

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - German utility E.ON's breakup has led to worries that funds set aside for decommissioning reactors will not suffice, but globally the cost of unwinding nuclear is uncertain as estimates range widely.

As ageing first-generation reactors close, the true cost of decommissioning will be crucial for the future of the nuclear industry, already ailing following the 2011 Fukushima disaster and competition from cheap shale gas, falling oil prices and a flood of renewable energy from wind and solar.

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Under an ironic interpretation of the proverb "No news is good news", besides news about nuclear installations in Europe, this website records nuclear accidents as published by the IAEA, properly referenced and archived.